What is the libertarian solution for situations like this?
Guns? Or maybe bears?
British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
21–30 of 68 posts
Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#22Imagine a world where ‘no legal duty’ was the default mindset for everyone.
Individuals and corporations quit caring about the environment; Which, is why there is sewage and microplastics in the sea and ocean.
Corps quitting caring about the environment implies they ever did.
They did not until environmental regulations forced them to, and they ignore those regulations every time they think they can get away with it.
And individuals are not much better.
Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#23What is the libertarian solution for situations like this?
Move somewhere else, probably. I have never seen a good answer from Libertarians on environmental issue. Or any tragedy of the commons problem.
Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#24Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
The business owners have no right to keep people from dumping sewage on them in public
That's probably assault if doesn't have a profit angle. Maybe its expected that everyone should just screw the rest as much as they humanly can without petty crime. For example, maybe can be a good business to create a company that takes control of all the coffee production/distribution and algorithmically price the cup of coffee to be about 5 quids or %0.1 (whichever is greater)of the monthly income of the customer.…
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Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#26What is the libertarian solution for situations like this?
Shit in their office.
Peninsula House, Rydon Lane, Exeter, Devon, England, EX2 7HR.
They have no right to a shit-free office.
Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#27Yet another example of why privatisation of utility functions is privatise profits socialise losses. Of course they believe pumping torrents of shit into the sea is OK.
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non-profit is still a private entity, just one that doesn't make profits for shareholders.
The problem is with the government anyway, not with any other party. Private companies are amoral, they'll do what they do and take their profit. A govt owned service will have internal incentives, as does the non-profit. The government can fix the problem by laying out regulations, i.e. you have to provide this service and this level of environmental protection, otherwise you lose your operating license.
In any case, the water system should not be run by private companies the way it is in the UK. Competition provides efficiencies. A system whereby each private company gets an area monopoly isn't going to realize competition - people aren't moving area because of the water company. A more ideal market would have been the local authority owning the water infrastructure and companies competing for a contract to run it / extend it, and if they do a poor job they're out. But of course the idea of owning the infrastructure itself seems against the Thatcherite philosophy that got us here.
Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#28This is tech debt, pure and simple.
https://news.sky.com/story/down-the-drain-what-went-wrong-wi...
The flaws in the sewerage system are fundamental and pervasive. It would be a national multi-generational effort to rebuild it all. It's going to be far cheaper to simply make swimming outdoors illegal and alter insurance guidelines to deny claims for water-borne health issues.
Stuff like this appears in UK newspapers all the time. It's just the think tanks putting controversial ideas out there so that public outrage can be gauged. This then informs government policy going forward.
Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#29"you have no right to swim in our sewage, mate"
But we're allowing it for just £50/year plus £15 admin fee. It has been automatically added to your direct debit.
Thanks for doing business with Steaming Shitwater.
Re: British water company dumps sewage, claims "no right to swim in the sea"
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
The business owners have no right to keep people from dumping sewage on them in public
That's probably assault if doesn't have a profit angle. Maybe its expected that everyone should just screw the rest as much as they humanly can without petty crime. For example, maybe can be a good business to create a company that takes control of all the coffee production/distribution and algorithmically price the cup of coffee to be about 5 quids or %0.1 (whichever is greater)of the monthly income of the customer.…
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